If all people did was simple equations like the one in the OP, you’d probably be right, but math syntax has to deal with all kinds of equations. Your way, I can’t write 3x^2–4x+5. Instead, I’d have to write ((((3x)^2)−4)x)+5. That’s WAY more obnoxious. It’s better to have an unambiguous syntax that covers all the cases and lets me write equations in an more simple form.

But that’s a bit like saying “If you’re going to talk to me, put the adjectives before the nouns,” even in Spanish where they come after. Mathematical notation is a language and it has a syntax. Sure, you can decide to ignore that syntax, or insist that people modify their use of it for you, but it’s not really a reasonable expectation.

Favorite “all time” would have me looking through a lot of titles, but I’ve really been enjoying Adrian Tchaikovsky lately, and some of his is hard SF. Probably Children of Time would be the one I’d start with.

If you like hard SF, you’ve probably read Weir (The Martian, Project Hail Mary, others), but he’s great.

I could go on a lot, but maybe I’ll keep it there unless you want more.

I always just get the new bar and the old sliver wet and press them together.

Okay, makes sense

Excellent, thank you. I just cleared my cache and it does seem to have helped a fair amount. Not nearly as fast as in a private window, but probably as fast as .ca is now. Much appreciated, I’m glad I asked.

I guess that would explain why people who access it with an app don’t seem to have the same issue, correct?

Hmm, yeah, that one’s maybe not as strong, though I kind of look at Network Effect and System Collapse as one story (confusing because there’s a book in between them, but that one chronologically comes before Network Effect). I liked it, but agree it’s not as strong.

Oh, much, much faster! Interesting. Okay, why is that?

Heh, my wife went through the drawer a few years ago and threw away all the containers that didn’t have lids, and lids without containers. I was amazed at how many there were. Not sure how that happens. Must be with the missing socks.

Funny, I just had to help someone pack a house into one of those POD things and they ended up saying, “You’re better at this, you say what goes where.”

I don’t think I’m as good at it with really large volumes, but the storage container thing is pretty handy.

I honestly don’t know where either of them are hosted. I’m in the US, in Southern California.

I’m in the US, in Southern California, so for sure could be contributing. Not sure where .ca is hosted.

As for an example, I just went to .world on my desktop browser (firefox) and loaded /all /new. It was 16 seconds between the click and all the visible graphics being loaded. The same thing on .ca was just under 5 seconds. On my tablet, the difference is greater.

That would make sense, ty.

My boring super power isn’t something I can monetize, but it’s useful regularly: being able to pick the best sized Tupperware container to put leftovers in.

For a variety of reasons (only some of which are related to a conscious choice to be healthier) I’ve lost 25 pounds. I was at the store the other day and the party sized peanut butter M&Ms were on sale. I thought “I’ve lost weight, and can afford to indulge a little,” so I bought one.

Omg, I can’t stop eating them! They’re so completely addictive.

I understand how you feel like that’s a satisfying portrayal, I’m just saying that’s not how it was portrayed in the books. And that’s okay, the director has to make decisions when a book is adapted to the screen. Stanley Kubrick decided that, with the state of the art of special effects at the time, the hedge maze in The Shining would have looked stupid, so he got rid of it for the movie. People were upset that it wasn’t there, but it was probably the right decision.

Well, yes, they’re following the storyline of the books, so the show is going to give away what happens in the books. The books are richer (as is typical), with more going on than they cover in the show, but the basic story is the same.

Which did you feel was the clunker?

In the books, Murderbot is aggressively no gendered. It gets upset at any suggestions that it has sex characteristics. That was enough for me to form a mental image of androgyny.

I mean, it’s fine. They had to go with someone, and that someone was going to have a body, it’s just different from what I pictured.

I’m enjoying it. Some of the decisions are a little odd. The thing that’s most distracting to me is that, in my head, Murderbot appears much more androgynous. That might have been hard to pull off, but Skarsgard is definitely male (even without genitalia). Some of the other characters are goofier than in the books, but I kind of understand the choice.

I hope the show gets people to read the books, but the show is entertaining.